And the Semester is Gone

So here I am, sitting in Watson studying and eating lemon heads.

It's hard to believe that the semester is coming to an end. Never in my life has a semester gone by so fast. Before I know it, my first year here will be gone, and that's just flat out weird. I thought I would be a freshman forever. Can we make that happen?

Anways, I've been reflecting on all of my projects these past few months, and I feel pretty proud of myself. It's going to be nice coming back next semester knowing that college isn't as scary as it seems. I know I'll do well.


Project 1:

Project 2:

 



Project 3:

Project 4:

It's nice to see all of my projects side by side. I grew a little bit in the midst of all them, as cheesy as that sounds. I can only hope that I have as much fun in the design next semester as I did this semester.

Every time I have come home, my parents always ask me the same question,
"What do you love most about being in college?" or "What have you loved most about your first semester?"

In all honesty, that's a hard question to answer in a few sentences. I've loved all of it. The new opportunities. The events on campus. The free stuff. The new friendships. The chance to grow apart from everything I've come to know. The chance to develop into a better person, a better friend, a better leader. The chance to be someone I've always wanted to be.

And the most exciting thing about all of this is I've only been in college for about four months. There's plenty of more opportunities ahead.
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"Always focus on how far you've come, rather than how far you have left to go."

THIS

OKAY SORRY 

I know it's my 398403928402th post of the day, but THIS is AWESOME:

Okay, I'm done. I swear.
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Just Because

Hola!

I was just cleaning out my computer today, and I found this gem:

 I made it over the summer, when I was super pumped about having Illustrator on my computer. I still really love it. Just thought I'd share because why not? Maybe I'll get it framed one of these days.

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// I hope you're having a fabulous day!

More Inspiring Things

Just browsing through Pinterest, normal day.

And of course I had to blog about these:

I also love this branding. It's edgy and fun.

I love this page layout. The diagonal theme is definitely interesting.






























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// Happy Tuesday!

It's DONE!

MY LAMP IS FINISHED!

And what a relief that is. Here are my final photos (as promised),

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"It always seems impossible until it's done."

Pinning

Hellllllllllllo.

I was browsing pinterest tonight, and I found some inspiration in these designs:

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Motivation

Hello!

Welp, here I am on the Monday night of finals week. I'm actually feeling pretty confident about my finals. Am I normal? It feels like I'm the only one feeling that way. Regardless, I am definitely ready to fly through this week and get to break.

I went home this weekend to watch The Nutcracker performed by Ballet Wichita. I performed in the show for six years, and this was my first year not performing. I loved going and watching all of my friends perform; however, I couldn't help but feel sad about not being on stage with them. I definitely miss dancing and performing like I used to. It was such a lifestyle for me: wake up, go to school, go to dance team practice, go to studio dance, go to nutcracker rehearsal, and then get homework done. I dedicated the majority of my time to dancing because I loved it, and I still do. But I know that life goes on, and I can't dance forever. So taking a few classes will have to do for now.

Anyways last year for nutcracker, I was a part of "Ballet Wichita's Dancer Council" along with three other high school seniors in the production. Our mission was to be a bridge of communication between Ballet Wichita dancers and the Ballet Wichita board members. We also aimed to take leadership in opening up opportunities for all Ballet Wichita dancers such as membership in national organizations, community service, publicity and marketing, and fundraising. I acted as the designer of the team. I designed flyers, logos, etc.


As I was flipping through the production's playbill, I ran across one of my designs! The logo for the Ballet Wichita Dancer Council was used in this year's program (it was last year too)! It's awesome knowing that they will use this logo for all of the dancer councils in Ballet Wichita's future. I actually had no idea they would use it again, I thought it was just for my year on the dancer council. It'll be used for many years, which is super exciting! Hundreds and hundreds of people were flipping through the program, and it's definitely encouraging to know so many people saw my logo.  In fact, my mom said "Amy, you could technically make them pay you for using your logo! It's yours." WOAH MOM YOU'RE RIGHT. I'm not interested in the money, but that does make me sound like a real life GRAPHIC DESIGNER. OH SNAP!Here it is:


I still can't get over the fact that they're using it. In a way, it's like I left a legacy behind. A legacy and tradition that will be continued for years. What an achievement.
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"Make a promise to yourself that you will choose to focus on your accomplishments rather than your failures."

THIS FREAKIN' AWESOME LAMP IS ALMOST DONE Y'ALL

The title basically sums it all up.

CHECK IT OUT LADY AND GENTS

Bayum. There it is. On a wall. Just doing what normal lamps do. It's just hangin'.

So right now you're like, what is the difference between this lamp and the last lamp you posted?

WELL let me just tell ya. First of all, this lamp is ALL ON ITS OWN. IT'S HANGING ON THE WALL BECAUSE I MADE IT HANG ON THE WALL. I also spray painted the cord white so that it wouldn't distract viewers away from the actual lamp.

This is my final lamp, but I plan on posting more final photos later this week.

Speaking of this week... this is how I'm currently feeling:

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//Happy finals week!! 

The Lamp is Coming ALIVE!

Howdy!

My adorable lil' lamp is just comin' to life! I made another one, and I made sure that my folds were little bit neater than the last go-round. I also made it a tiny bit longer, just to make it more dramatic.

Here it is just hanging in my dorm (chillin' like a real lamp):

And also here's a selfie because we've spent so much time together:

I will be turning this project in A WEEK from today! So that's exciting. How in the world is this semester already over? I'm already halfway through my first year of college. WHAT? So so so so weird to think about.

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// Happy Wednesday!

Another Christmas Card

I'm running out of ways to say hey.. so.. HEY

If you didn't get it from the title, I designed another Christmas card! My roommate is in charge of sending out her sorority's holiday card this year, and she asked me to make it look holiday-ish. So of course I was like "YES OMG PLEASE SOUNDS LIKE FUN"

She wanted it to look fairly simple. So she sent me the group picture and I just put a nice frame around it and added some text to spice it up. Here it is:

It's super simple, but I didn't want to distract people away from the photo. Now the parents of Delta Gamma are gonna have THE HAPPIEST FREAKIN' HOLIDAY all thanks to this BE-YOO-TI-FUL card. 

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13 DAYS, 10 HOURS, AND 27 MINUTES TILL CHRISTMAS!!

Hearty Hues

Hi, again. 

For my Intro to Poetry class, our final project was a creative project. We had to make some sort of creative project that answers the question "What is poetry?"

So I channeled my inner graphic designer, and I decided to make a literary magazine. The thesis of my project is poetry is a boundary-free medium that triggers emotions in people. To represent that in my magazine, I used colors. Each poem included in the magazine is color coded by the particular emotion the poem portrays. For instance, a poem that is sad and full of grief is colored blue, and a poem that is angry or aggravated is colored red.



This is the cover. The variety colors on the cover show that poetry isn't limited to just one emotion; furthermore, poetry consists of all types of emotions. Each color on the cover represents a certain emotion. I named the magazine "Hearty Hues" because it is the epitome of my magazine in two words: emotion and colors.

Here are some examples of the different color schemes on each page:

Blue: symbolizes sadness/grief
Yellow: fear/apprehension
Orange: upset/frustration
Red: aggravation/irritation

         

And here is the index. I didn't organize the poems in a particular order because I want readers to turn the page to the next poem and have it represent a completely different emotion. The random order shows that poetry jumps from one emotion to the next, and it also shows that there are several emotions to be expressed within the poetry world.

“Hearty Hues” represents all of poetry’s emotions through color and organization. My hopes for “Hearty Hues” is that readers will establish a strong connection to these poems as the color scheme on each page triggers their emotions.  I loved designing the magazine. It was fun to design something where every single part of the design had a meaning of some sort. I enjoyed my poetry class this semester, and I would love to work for a literary magazine at some point in my life. 

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"The chief function of color should be to be to serve expression." -Henri Matisse 

Drawing Portfolio

Hey there.

I'm done with drawing for this semester! WOAH. I'm turning in my portfolio during class tomorrow. I never thought I'd say this, but overall, I've enjoyed the class. I became good friends with some people in the class, and I have learned a lot. Drawing isn't something I'd like to major in or get super serious about, but it's not that bad. I can handle it.

I uploaded a few of my past sketches in a previous post. Here are a few more going in my portfolio:


A felt tip pen still life:

Shading exercise:

Extended photo drawing (similar to the mermaid drawing from the previous drawing post):

A one-point perspective drawing of the inside of Snoopy's dog house:

Hatching/Shading exercise:

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Forever Like That

Hello, again. 

I went to a wedding a couple months ago, and I've been meaning to blog about it. Not only was it a beautiful wedding, but it was branded/designed so well. Turns out, the groom is a graphic designer, and he ROCKS at it!

Their wedding logo is on the mirrors in the picture above.

Photographs by Waldron Photography

I hope to be that talented one day. Wow.
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Seek Light

WHOOPS

Forgot to update y'all on my project!

In class last Thursday, I hung up my favorite experimentation:

I was pretty happy with it how looked after hanging it up, but I knew I still had a lot more work to do. I talked to my professor, and he gave me some great ideas.

Then, as I was playing around my idea in class I came to this:

I really liked this. It was simple and elegant. I asked my professor how he felt about it, and he told me it needed to be more complex. So for awhile, I had no idea what to do with it.

FINALLY,  I came to this conclusion:

 

I was really frustrated for awhile. I could not figure out how I wanted to make the lamp more complicated, but I worked through it and discovered something better. I feel like I always go through a few days of frustration in all of my projects. There will always be times when you're not confident or when you're confused on what direction you're going in. If there's one thing I've learned this semester, that's it. Design is trial and error, and you WILL fail. But you HAVE to get comfortable with failing in order to succeed.

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"Fall seven times, stand up eight."

Keep Calm CHRISTMAS Is Coming!

Hi friends!

Finals keep on getting CLOSER and CLOSER. But if finals are close, then that means CHRISTMAS is close!

I recieved the opportunity to design my sister's Christmas card this year. Okay, I actually texted her "CAN I PLEASE DESIGN YOUR CHRISTMAS CARD? PLEASSSSSSSE?" And she said yes so of course I was like "YAYYYYYYYYYYY" So, here it is!

Surprisingly, it didn't take me that long. I just sat down and whipped it out on Wednesday evening. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! It was nice to do a project non-school related. I could do whatever I wanted with it, and I wasn't getting graded.

Aside from that, ChiO's Christmas lights look adorable. Don't they just make you happy?

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// 16 days till Christmas!